OPPM Partners
Effective Project Communication with One-page Project Manager

According to Andy Crowe, the author of ‘Alpha Project Managers’, the most significant parameter that distinguishes the top two percent of project managers from others is their ability to communicate clearly and effectively. More than efficient planning, risk assessment, and cost analysis, it is the quality of communication that determines potential project success or failure. “As a result, the paramount strategic advising element for us is ‘serious simplicity in project communication’ to increase the probability of a project’s success,” states Clark A. Campbell, the founder of OPPM Partners.

A provider of project management solutions, OPPM Partners offers training as well as consulting centered on powerful and efficient project communication, thus amplifying a project manager’s ability to be successful. No matter how big or complicated a project is, the company can reduce it into a simple, single-page document comprising all the important details by using its fundamental tool—the One-page Project Manager (OPPM).

An OPPM template displays every essential element of a project including the prime objective, sub-objectives, work breakdown structure, task completion schedule, reporting cadence, individual responsibilities, and major milestones on a single page. The overall budget and expenses over time are represented graphically at the bottom of the template that also delineates various risks and ways to mitigate them. This cumulative information is then conveyed to an organization’s senior management, enabling them to get a clear picture of their project’s performance quickly rather than relying on time-consuming project review meetings. In addition to facilitating efficient communication in a candid and timely manner, an OPPM template includes a space to answer the questions—why and what next— that become evident after reviewing the document.

To enhance the nature and precision of project communication, OPPM facilitates early collaboration among various teams and stakeholders of an organization along with establishing channels for clear, concise, and complete communication. This helps a project manager monitor the project’s progress with regard to the assigned time and budget, worrisome issues to be solved, and whether everyone in the team is performing as expected.

OPPM facilitates early collaboration among various teams and stakeholders of an organization along with establishing channels for clear, concise, and complete communication

Campbell supplements his company’s offerings with a set of books that serve as practical guides to implementing OPPM. Shortly after publishing his first book named ‘OPPM’ in 2006, Campbell authored ‘OPPM for IT Projects’ to help reduce the burden that overworked IT managers often face. To advance the idea of operational excellence, OPPM Partners incorporated its OPPM tool into the Japanese A3 report first developed at Toyota for communicating projects on a single page. “This forms the central theme of my third book—OPPM for Execution—OPPMs for the Project Management Office (PMO) and Scrum based Agile are part of book four, The New OPPM, written with Clark’s son Mick, cofounder of OPPM Partners, a PMP and former Telecom VP. These agile methodologies were implemented during Mitt Romney’s presidential election campaign in 2012, and have been compiled into Campbell’s fifth book— Romney Readiness Project—which was also referred to by the candidates for the 2016 elections.

OPPMs have communicated successful projects to: secure ISO Certifications; enhance FDA applications; simplify National Science Foundation reporting; document results for hundreds of different IT projects; augment consultant presentations and progress reports; display plans and progress for construction projects, and to “seriously simplify” project understanding, buy in and support for projects to attract, retain, and engage employees.

OPPM can also be used to successfully deploy SAP in large enterprises and is adaptable to numerous organizational processes. Furthermore, to address various HR-related processes including staffing, compensation, and benefits management, Campbell will soon publish his sixth book—OPPM for HR Projects. “We are now working on providing a data warehouse of diverse OPPM templates that clients can choose from and refine to best meet their requirements,” concludes Campbell.